I left the room. As I was passing along the
verandah towards the inner apartments, Amulya suddenly
made his appearance and came and stood before me.
“Fear nothing, Sister Rani,” he said.
“I am off tonight and shall not return unsuccessful.”
“Amulya,” said I, looking straight into
his earnest, youthful face, “I fear nothing
for myself, but may I never cease to fear for you.”
Amulya turned to go, but before he was out of sight
I called him back and asked: “Have you
a mother, Amulya?”
“I have.”
“A sister?”
“No, I am the only child of my mother.
My father died when I was quite little.”
“Then go back to your mother, Amulya.”
“But, Sister Rani, I have now both mother and
sister.”
“Then, Amulya, before you leave tonight, come
and have your dinner here.”
“There won’t be time for that. Let
me take some food for the journey, consecrated with
your touch.”
“What do you specially like, Amulya?”
“If I had been with my mother I should have had
lots of Poush cakes. Make some for me with your
own hands, Sister Rani!”
------
25. Of the __Ramayana__. The story of his
devotion to his elder brother Rama and his brother’s
wife Sita, has become a byword.
Nikhil’s Story
I learnt from my master that Sandip had joined forces
with Harish Kundu, and there was to be a grand celebration
of the worship of the demon-destroying Goddess.
Harish Kundu was extorting the expenses from his
tenantry. Pandits Kaviratna and Vidyavagish
had been commissioned to compose a hymn with a double
meaning.
My master has just had a passage at arms with Sandip
over this. “Evolution is at work amongst
the gods as well,” says Sandip. “The
grandson has to remodel the gods created by the grandfather
to suit his own taste, or else he is left an atheist.
It is my mission to modernize the ancient deities.
I am born the saviour of the gods, to emancipate
them from the thraldom of the past.”
I have seen from our boyhood what a juggler with ideas
is Sandip. He has no interest in discovering
truth, but to make a quizzical display of it rejoices
his heart. Had he been born in the wilds of
Africa he would have spent a glorious time inventing
argument after argument to prove that cannibalism
is the best means of promoting true communion between
man and man. But those who deal in delusion
end by deluding themselves, and I fully believe that,
each time Sandip creates a new fallacy, he persuades
himself that he has found the truth, however contradictory
his creations may be to one another.
However, I shall not give a helping hand to establish
a liquor distillery in my country. The young
men, who are ready to offer their services for their
country’s cause, must not fall into this habit
of getting intoxicated. The people who want to
exact work by drugging methods set more value on the
excitement than on the minds they intoxicate.
